Award-winning movie set for Mid-Autumn Festival

Song of Spring, a critically acclaimed movie which won veteran Wu Yanshu the best actress award at the 12th Beijing International Film Festival last month, is scheduled to open across Chinese mainland on Sept 10.

As the latest directorial outing of female filmmaker Yang Lina, who was shot into fame from the documentary Old Men, the new movie recounts a tear-jerking story about an 85-year-old mother taking care of her 65-year-old daughter, who lives with Alzheimer's disease. Wu, 84, stars the mother, while Xi Meijuan, also a prestigious actress, portrays the daughter.

The movie premiered in Beijing's China Film Archive on Sept 5, with all the major creators attending an online video talk to share the behind-the-scenes stories due to pandemic.

Actress Xi recalled that she was invited to join the project when she was attending the announcing ceremony of the Plum Performance Award, the country's highest honor for stage performers, in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province.

Regarding the age of 60 as a watershed year for actresses, Xi, who turned 67 earlier this year, said she had become more cautious and picky about selecting scripts, but it was the complex charm of the character, a retired professor of physics, that attracted her to join the project.

A total of 12 new movies, all produced by Chinese companies, will compete during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, which has shaped a lucrative box office within recent years.

Currently, Song of Spring has topped the festival's presale box office charts on Sept 10, followed by Hero and Give Me Five respectively on the second and third seats, according to live tracker Beacon.